To do their job, ministers must have a working grasp of what the mission of the church is and how it is to be accomplished. They must also be aware of the trends of society and how the church should respond. These authors help ministers either by writing about how to do ministry, or by keeping them informed of the latest cultural trends and issues. Most of these are themselves actively involved in church leadership, evangelism, and social reform.
In this group, Rebecca Manley Pippert, Thom Rainer, and Haddon Robinson are the best. Barna is good for information on trends, but his church growth principles are too market-focused. Paul Pressler's A Hill on Which to Die is indispensable to understanding recent Southern Baptist history, as is Jerry Sutton's The Baptist Reformation (not listed here). Anything by Billy Graham or Martin Luther King, Jr. is also historically significant.
Brother Andrew (b. 1928) - once a soldier in Indonesia, then a Dutch missionary who has evangelized and distributed Christian materials in Communist and Muslim countries. He is the founder of Open Doors International and an outspoken advocate of religious liberty and missions to closed countries. Titles: The Calling; For the Love of My Brothers; God's Smuggler; Is Life So Dear; The Narrow Road Not to be confused with a former Jesuit and missionary to India also called Brother Andrew (1928-2000).
George Barna (b. 1954) - conservative evangelical founder of Barna Research Group, a full-service marketing research company that has analyzed cultural trends and the Christian church since 1984. Also head of the Barna Institute, which provides strategic information to ministers. Barna is particularly concerned with the lack of doctrinal awareness in the congregation. He was trained at Dallas Baptist University. Titles: Boiling Point; Evangelism that Works; A Fish Out of Water; The Frog in the Kettle; Grow Your Church from the Outside In; Growing True Disciples; The Habits of Highly Effective Churches; Leaders on Leadership (Ed.); Marketing the Church; The Power of Team Leadership; The Power of Vision; The Second Coming of the Church; Single Focus; Think Like Jesus; Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions; User Friendly Churches.
Joseph T. Bayly - highly quotable, witty satirist and journalist who became head of InterVarsity Press in 1951. He is now vice president of David C. Cook Publishing Company. His work was influential in moving evangelicals away from a pastor-centered concept of the church and toward a view of every-member ministry, which he described as relational, extramural, and fruitful. He was also critical of relying on tracts and other artificial methods of evangelism. Titles: The Gospel Blimp and Other Modern Parables; Heaven; The Last Thing We Talk About; Psalms of My Life; A Voice in the Wilderness; Winterflight: A Novel.
Harold Best - evangelical composer, former music dean at Wheaton, and former president of the National Association of Schools of Music. Teaches that worship is a constant activity that should be consciously directed toward God. His concept of worship is grounded in the doctrines of creation and creativity, and he urges innovation and multicultural integration in today's worship music. Titles: Music Through the Eyes of Faith; Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts.
Bill Bright (1921-2003) - evangelical founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. Member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and one of the few prominent postmillennialists in recent years. His efforts targeted colleges, high schools, athletes, and the military. Opposed the Lordship salvation movement in favor of a two-tiered salvation model>. Famous for The Four Spiritual Laws and similar tracts. Titles: Blessed Child (w/ Ted Dekker); The Christian and Giving; Come Help Change the World; The Coming Revival; Discover the Book God Wrote; First Love; Five Steps to Sharing Your Faith; God: Discover His Character; Handbook for Chrisitan Maturity; Handbook of Concepts for Living; His Intimate Presence; The Holy Spirit: The Key to Supernatural Living; The Journey Home; A Man Called Blessed (w/ Ted Dekker); The Secret; The Transforming Power of Fasting; Witnessing Without Fear.
Chuck Colson (b. 1931) - conservative evangelical founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and host of the radio program Flashpoint. Formerly Anglican and now Southern Baptist, he holds to Protestant distinctives but works for unity with like-minded Catholics, believing the two groups have more commonalities than differences. Colson was a leading architect of the declaration "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." Titles: Answers to Your Kids' Questions; Being the Body; Born Again; Gideon's Torch; The Good Life (w/ Harold Fickett); How Now Shall We Live?; Loving God; Science and Evolution; Six Million Angels.
Ed Dobson (b. 1949) - conservative evangelical pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids. Formerly involved in Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority but grew dissatisfied with the methods involved. He writes on a wide range of topics but pushes the envelope in his advocation of seeker sensitivity. Titles: Abraham: The Lord Will Provide; Blinded by Might (w/ Cal Thomas); Finding God in the Face of Evil; The Fundamentalist Phenomenon; Mastering Conflict and Controversy; Simplicity; Standing Fast: Ministry in an Unfriendly World; Starting a Seeker-Sensitive Service; What the Bible Really Says about Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage. He also helped produce the Knowing Jesus Study Bible. Not related to James Dobson.
Billy Graham (b. 1918) - conservative pioneer of evangelical revivalism. Graham is highly insistent on inerrancy and Lordship salvation but is non-sectarian and has embraced inclusivism in recent years. He works with political and religious figures of all stripes to proclaim the gospel wherever possible, but some critics regard this as a counter-productive compromise. He is now semi-retired an dhas been succeeded by his son, Franklin Graham (author of Rebel with a Cause. Titles: Angels; Answers to Life's Problems; Death and the Life After; The Holy Spirit; Hope for Each Day; Hope for the Troubled Heart; How to Be Born Again; Just As I Am; The Key to Personal Peace; Peace with God; Words of Wisdom.
Jack Graham - Arminian evangelical pastor of the innovative, rapidly growing Prestonwood Baptist Church. Graham is a master of effective leadership and motivation, and works with a highly skilled staff to operate one of the largest Southern Baptist churches. He also recently served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He tries to strike a balance between biblical preaching and seeker-sensitive church growth methods, and he has denounced Calvinism as the "death sentence" of evangelism and missions. Titles: Diamonds in the Dark (w/ Zig Ziglar); A Hope and a Future; Lessons from the Heart; Life According to Jesus; You Can Make a Difference. Not related to the Billy Graham family.
Ruth Bell Graham (b. 1920) - wife of Billy Graham who holds to the same convictions of the evangelist. Her works are primarily devotional, and there are also several collections of her poems. Titles: Blessings for a Mother's Day; Joy and Strength; Legacy of a Pack Rat; Mothers Together; One Wintry Night; Parenting in the Pew; Prayers from a Mother's Heart; Prodigals and Those Who Love Them. There is also a dramatic presentation of her life titled Footprints of a Pilgrim.
Ken Hemphill - conservative evangelical head of the SBC's Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative, also former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Hemphill represents some of the best of the church growth movement, challenging the prevailing seeker-sensitive techniques and moving pastors away from a "numbers" mindset. He also writes short doctrinal books for pastors and lay readers. Titles: The Antioch Effect; Before Revival Begins; The Bonsai Theory of Church Growth; Empowering Kingdom Growth; Growing an Evangelistic Sunday School; Life Answers; Mirror, Mirror on the Wall; The Names of God; The Official Rule Book for the New Church Game; The Prayer of Jesus; Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur; Spiritual Gifts.
Bill Hull (b. 1946) - conservative evangelical minister who writes on discipleship. Over the course of his ministry, he has grown from a "strategist" to a "shepherd"; he now rejects the pastor-as-CEO model of church growth with its managerial techniques and vision formulas, in favor of spiritual depth, the doctrine of regeneration, and "behavioral verification" that church members are genuinely saved. Titles: Anxious for Nothing; Building High Commitment in a Low-Commitment World; Can We Save the Evangelical Church?; Choose the Life; The Disciple-Making Church; The Disciple-Making Pastor; New Century Disciplemaking; Revival that Reforms; Right Thinking; Straight Talk on Spiritual Power. Not to be confused with Samford professor Bill Hull, who opposed the Southern Baptist conservative resurgence.
Bill Hybels (b. 1952) - Arminian evangelical pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, pioneer of the seeker sensitive worship service. Hybels places heavy emphasis on social activism and opposes Lordship salvation. His egalitarian and positive view of human nature have led to friction with more conservative evangelicals. Titles: Becoming a Contagious Christian; Courageous Leadership; Engraved on Your Heart; Too Busy Not to Pray; Who You Are When No One's Looking; Wisdom: Making Life Work.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) - theologically liberal pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and civil rights activist of the 1950s and 60s. One of the world's most recognized Christians. King advocated nonviolent protest against racial inequalities in his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, which chronicles the Rosa Parks bus boycott. He saw the grounding of society on biblical, godly principles as the ultimate solution to injustice.
Richard Land - dispensational evangelical, proud Texan, president of Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and host of the radio show "For Faith and Family." Land is outspoken on many issues, from abortion to civil rights to overseas persecution. He promoted the Baptist boycott of Disney and was one of the first Baptists to urge environmental responsibility. Land was recently appointed by President Bush to a committee on religious freedom. Titles: The Christian in the Public Square; Citizen Christians; The Earth Is the Lord's; For Faith and Family; Life at Risk (Ed. w/ Louis A. Moore); Real Homeland Security; Send a Message to Mickey.
Aubrey Malphurs (b. 1944) - dispensational evangelical professor of Christian education at Dallas Theological Seminary, and prominent writer on church leadership and the management of change. Titles: Advanced Strategic Planning; Being Leaders; Building Leaders; A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings and Funerals; Developing a Dynamic Mission for Your Ministry; Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century (w/ Haddon Robinson); Maximizing Your Effectiveness; Ministry Nuts and Bolts; Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century (w/ Joe Aldrich); Values-Driven Leadership.
John Maxwell (b. 1947) - Arminian evangelical founder of the INJOY Life Club and Wesleyan former pastor. Maxwell's mission is to foster leadership abilities among pastors. He is also a frequent speaker for Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family. Titles: Attitude 101; Becoming a Person of Influence; Developing the Leader Within You; Developing the Leaders Around You; Failing Forward; Leadership 101; Relationships 101; The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player; Success: One Day at a Time; The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork; Teamwork Makes the Dream Work; Thinking for a Change; The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader; The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership; The Winning Attitude; You Can't Be a Smart Cookie If You Have a Crumby Attitude. He also produced the Leadership Bible.
Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998) -bishop of the Church of South India, a union of Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches. An early leader in the World Council of Churches who later opposed the liberal and syncretist directions of the ecumenical movement, yet dreamed of a church united in uncompromised truth. Titles: Faith and Power; Foolishness to the Greeks; The Gospel in a Pluralist Society; The Household of God; The Light Has Come; The Open Secret; Proper Confidence; St. Paul in Limerick; Signs Amid the Rubble; Truth and Authority in Modernity; Trinitarian Doctrine for Today's Mission; Truth to Tell; Unfinished Agenda; A Walk through the Bible; A Word in Season.
John M. Perkins (b. 1930) - conservative evangelical chair of the Christian Community Development Association and minister for racial reconciliation within the church. Perkins sees both a strong pastorate and lay ministry involvement as necessary for the improvement of the church's social and personal morality. He published the Reconciliers Fellowship Magazine from 1992 to 1998 and has written many books. Titles: Beyond Charity; A Call to Holistic Ministry; A Quiet Revolution; A Time to Heal; A Voice Crying in the Wilderness; With Justice for All. Not to be confused with New Age author John Perkins or Christian authors Tony Perkins and Bill Perkins.
Rebecca Manley Pippert - conservative evangelical who helped popularize lifestyle evangelism. A national consultant on evangelism for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, she opposes methods that are based on marketing techniques. Titles: Evangelism: A Way of Life; A Heart Like His; Hope Has Its Reasons; Looking at the Life of Jesus; Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World; Talking about Jesus Without Sounding "Religious"; Transformation; The Way of Jesus.
Paul Pressler (b. 1930) - evangelical Texas judge who helped spawn the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. He is committed to biblical inerrancy as a foundational doctrine of Christianity, though in his humility he is not dogmatic on less central issues such as charismatic gifts, millennial schemes, and the age of the earth. Pressler recounts his heritage and spiritual journey, along with an in-depth look at the SBC's transformation, in A Hill on Which to Die. He also has a historical book titled The Texas Regulars.
Thom Rainer (b. 1955) - Reformed evangelical and founding dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Billy Graham School of Evangelism. Rainer advocates effective biblical principles, doctrinal preaching, and church discipline as keys to church growth. He bases his recommendations on his own careful research and is particularly critical of seeker sensitive methods. Titles: The Bridger Generation; Eating the Elephant; Effective Evangelistic Churches; The Everyday Guide to Church Growth; High Expectations; Surprising Insights from the Unchurched; The Unchurched Next Door; When Good Churches Become Great.
Ralph Reed (b. 1961) - former president of the Christian Coalition and thus at the head of conservative evangelical political and social activism. In the last ten years he has turned his attention to assisting Republican political campaigns. Reed, in contrast to Ed Dobson and Cal Thomas, is optimistic about the ability of political activity to bring America back to Christianity. Titles: Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Face of American Politics; After the Revolution; Politically Incorrect.
Haddon Robinson (b. ca. 1930) - Reformed evangelical professor of preaching at the Baptist school Gordon-Conwell, and host of the radio program Discover the Word. Recognized as one of the best expository preachers in the United States. He is also trained in medicine. Titles: Biblical Preaching; Biblical Sermons; The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching; Culture Shift: Communicating God's Truth to Our Changing World; Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century (w/ Aubrey Malphurs); It's All in How You Tell It; Preaching that Speaks to Women (w/ Alice Mathews).
Bob Russell (b. 1947) - Arminian evangelical pastor of Louisville's Southeast Christian Church, one of the largest churches in the United States. As a conservative and dynamic preacher, the postive atmosphere he creates has led to extreme growth in his church. While personally opposed to Calvinism, he is on friendly terms with the fairly Calvinistic Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has a view of baptism more similar to that of Baptists than to baptismal regeneration. Titles: Find Us Faithful; God's Message for a Growing Church; Jesus, Lord of Your Personality; When God Answers Prayer; When God Builds a Church.J. Oswald Sanders (1903-1992) - highly quotable, evangelical successor to Hudson Taylor as head of China Inland Mission (later the OMF). He wrote a book a year from age 70 until his death at the age of 89. Titles: Certainties of Christ's Second Coming; Enjoying Intimacy with God; Facing Loneliness; Heaven: Better by Far; The Incomparable Christ; The Joy of Following Jesus; Prayer Power Unlimited; Promised-Land Living; Satan Is No Myth; Spiritual Leadership; Spiritual Maturity. Not to be confused with Oswald Chambers.
Cal Thomas (b. 1942) - conservative evangelical syndicated news columnist. He is openly Christian and politically conservative, but nevertheless a critic of the Moral Majority and similar organizations for attempting "trickle-down morality." Thomas believes American revival must start at the level of the citizenry before laws and leaders can be reformed. Titles: Blinded by Might (w/ Ed Dobson); Book Burning; The Death of Ethics in America; A Freedom Dream; Public Persons and Private Lives; The Things that Matter Most; Uncommon Sense; The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas.
D. Elton Trueblood (1900-1994) - Quaker pioneer of every-member ministry, which he called "the abolition of the laity." One of the more progressive advocates of the movement, he spoke against strong pastoral authority over the congregation. He was heavily influenced by C. S. Lewis. Titles: The Company of the Committed; Essays in Gratitude; The Essence of Spiritual Religion; The Incendiary Fellowship; A Life of Search; The People Called Quakers; The Predicament of Modern Man; The Trustworthiness of Religious Experience
Rick Warren (b. 1954) - evangelical founder and pastor of Saddleback Church. Warren advocates an essentially seeker sensitive approach to church strategy and prefers narrative preaching over the more traditional, expository model. Nevertheless, he provides theological instruction for his congregation and is a strong supporter of every-member ministry and church discipline. He has also led evangelical efforts against global warming and opposed the SBC's decision to dissociate from the liberal dominated Baptist World Alliance. Titles: Answers to Life's Difficult Questions; Personal Bible Study Methods; The Power to Change Your Life; The Purpose-Driven Church; The Purpose-Driven Life. Not to be confused with Christian psychologist Neil Clark Warren.
John Yoder (1927-1997) - Mennonite theologian and professor of ethics at Notre Dame. Yoder promoted a Christian life and separate society characterized by pacifism, nonresistance, compassion, generosity, and in many cases voluntary poverty. Titles: Authentic Transformation; Body Politics; The Christian and Capital Punishment; The Christian Witness to the State; Crazy Quilt: Pieces of a Mennonite Life (w/ Cynthia Yoder); Discipleship as Political Responsibility; For the Nations; The Fullness of Christ; He Came Preaching Peace; Nevertheless: The Varieties and Shortcomings of Religious Pacifism; The Original Revolution; The Politics of Jesus; Preface to Theology; The Royal Priesthood; To Hear the Word; What Would You Do?; When War Is Unjust. Not to be confused with a certain diminutive Jedi Master.
Ed Young, Sr. (b. 1937) - pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, which under his leadership grew from 500 to 22,000 in membership. Young is a conservative evangelical whose primary emphases are church Bible study, personal prayer, and a life of integrity. He is a frequent conference speaker and served as SBC president during the early years of its conservative resurgence. Titles: Been There, Done That, Now What?; David: After God's Own Heart; From Bad Beginnings to Happy Endings; The Purpose of Suffering; Romancing the Home; The Ten Commandments of Marriage; The Ten Commandments of Parenting; A Winning Walk. Not to be confused with Ed Young, Jr. of Grapevine, Texas, or Old Testament scholar Edward J. Young.Many major pastors are classified according to doctrinal commitments prominent in their writings. For these, see the sections for Reformed, and dispensational, and charismatic writers. The beliefs of church growth authorities Leonard Sweet and Bill Easum are somewhat less than evangelical. For more on the church and secular society, see the apologetics section.
For a statement of my beliefs, see my Declaration of Faith.
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